Russian Sledges

minhanossa:

Me

Nate Silver discusses his Super Bowl prediction with Stephen A. Smith and Skip Bayless.

The online version of the UK "newspaper" The Mirror have published some rare behind-the-scenes photographs from the Patrick Troughton stories, The Abominable Snowmen and The Web of Fear. You can check out the full gallery of images HERE. Be warned, it is The Mirror.

Mad Norwegian Press have announced a new book in their range of essays about Doctor Who by its fans and focusses, as the title suggests, on how Queers Dig Time Lords: A Celebration of Doctor Who by the LGBTQ Fans Who Love It.

Queers Dig Time Lords: A Celebration of Doctor Who by the LGBTQ Fans Who Love It
Edited by Sigrid Ellis and Michael Damian Thomas
Released 4 Jun 2013 (pre-order)

In Queers Dig Time Lords, editors Sigrid Ellis (Chicks Dig Comics) and Michael Damian Thomas (Apex Magazine) bring together essays by award-winning writers to celebrate the phenomenon that is Doctor Who, in the tradition of the Hugo Award-winning Chicks Dig Time Lords.

Tanya Huff (Blood Ties) wears bi-focals as she analyzes the Doctor’s fluid sexuality, former Doctor Who script editor Gary Russell explores the show’s effect on his teenage years, Paul Magrs (Hornets' Nest) defends and celebrates the series' camp qualities, and Melissa Scott (Trouble and Her Friends) describes Who’s impact on her greatest love and loss.

Other contributors include David Llewellyn (Night of the Humans), Rachel Swirsky (Through the Drowsy Dark), Hal Duncan (Ink: The Book of All Hours), Mary Anne Mohanraj (Bodies in Motion), and Jed Hartman (Strange Horizons).

Introduction by Doctor Who and Torchwood star John Barrowman, and Carole E Barrowman (Exodus Code). Cover art by Colleen Coover (Small Favors).

Their previous book in this vein, Chicks Dig Time Lords: A Celebration of Doctor Who by the Women Who Love It, received a Hugo Award back in 2011, winning the Best Related Work category.

Related Articles: Chicks Dig Time Lords (9 Oct 2009); Hugo Awards (22 Aug 2011)

Doctor Who News

Keith Ratliff, whose gun enthusiast YouTube channel FPSRussia is among the most popular on the video site, was found dead on January 3rd — killed by a single shot to the head. Ratliff's body was discovered in the office where he stored many of the handguns and high-powered rifles that helped his videos starring friend Kyle Myers climb the YouTube charts. The clips on FPSRussia, which feature Myers enthusiastically discussing a gun before showcasing its firepower in dramatic fashion (often involving explosions), have been viewed millions of times.

Authorities say there were no signs of a struggle at the homicide scene, which has led his family to believe Ratliff may have been slain by an individual he knew. “For him not to pull out...

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footox:

yeah we actually need to talk more about the new david bowie album cover

this is the real album cover

“On Friday, a highly educated, very smart colleague at The New Yorker explained her decision to remain unvaccinated with these words: “I never get a flu shot, and I never get the flu.” O.K. Let’s play her game. Turn to whomever you are with and say these sentences out loud: “I never wear seat belts, and I never get killed in car crashes;” “I never use condoms, and I never become infected with sexually transmitted diseases;” “I eat red meat seven times a week, only exercise once a year, and I’ve never had a heart attack or a stroke.””

- For God’s Sake, Go Get a Flu Shot : The New Yorker

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“To celebrate the year we broke out of our alcohol comfort zone and designed premium olive oils, fine foods, luxury luggage, and just plain crazy new stuff, we teamed up with the amazing Dan & Dave to create this, our Ultimate Deck.”

The truth IS out there. After a few people (Mitch, James C.) have noted the similarity it wasn’t until I watched the show myself that I realized how similar Downton Abbey‘s theme is to the X-Files intro. According to wikipedia the X-Files theme reached #2 in the UK Singles Chart. Really??? John Lunn - "Downton Abbey Theme" (2010)
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Mark Snow - "X-Files Theme" (1993)
Here’s a fun tidbit about the X-Files theme music from its Wikipedia page: The theme song’s famous whistle effect was inspired by the track “How Soon is Now” from The Smiths‘ 1985 album Meat Is Murder. After attempting to craft the theme with different sound effects, Snow used a Proteus 2 rack-mount synth that featured an effect called “Whistling Joe”. After hearing this effect, Carter was “taken aback” and noted it is was “going to be good”. According to the “Behind the Truth” segment on the first season DVD, Snow created the echo effect on the track by accident. He said that the song had gone through several revisions, but Carter felt that something was not quite right. Carter walked out of the room and Snow put his hand and forearm on hiskeyboard in frustration. The keyboard, however, had an echo effect setting that had accidentally been activated. The resulting riff pleased

nevver:

How to sing

Tuscany Press has launched CatholicFiction.net, promising to review one contemporary book each Sunday and one classic work of Catholic fiction each Wednesday. What do you think makes a novel Catholic?

Even in the chilly Alaskan heartland, this isn’t quite what you expect. A giant igloo. Situated on the George Parks Highway, 180 miles out of Anchorage on the route towards Fairbanks, Igloo City as it is known stands out like the proverbial sore thumb. It has become something of a tourist attraction in its own right.

You may not have to guess when the Igloo Hotel was but as the 1970s are generally regarded as the decade that style forgot there aren’t any prizes if that was your first conjecture. Someone, apparently, thought that aping the Inuit tradition of igloo building would be a great idea for a hotel. Whether they simultaneously had the idea to build a giant tepee hotel in a Lakota community is lost to history.

Yet this grand plan never came to final fruition. The four storey hotel was never finished, a victim of its builder’s failure to follow building codes or ran out of money. Or something. As it was too expensive to tear down and start again it has been abandoned to the Alaskan elements.

Inside, you can see how the building was progressing before the giant igloo was abandoned. Although Igloo City’s ownership has passed through several hands since the 1970s it seems that it has never been seen as viable enough by the banks for loans to be granted. At the moment it is locked up and becoming slowly more dilapidated with time.

Image Credit Flickr User sandwichgirl
Image Credit Flickr User sandwichgirl
It seems unlikely that this grand project will ever be finished. The nearest town, twenty miles away, is Cantwell. At the last census the town had a population of 222 which is a nice (if small) round number and perhaps indicative of how the tourism industry has penetrated this corner of Alaska.

Image Credit Flickr User snadwichgirl
Perhaps it is just something else for the archaeologists of the far future to discover, ponder and then shake their heads at the general craziness of the ancients…

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The world was given a great surprise last week when, after a decade of playing coy, David Bowie announced the release of a brand-new album called The Next Day, his first in ten years. Bowie's sudden comeback is made even more interesting when you wonder how, exactly, he kept the two-year-long project so tightly under wraps. Unsurprisingly, it wasn't easy. The Guardian reports that Bowie had to forgo all the grand entourage and infrastructure of, well, David Bowie. He had a New York staff of just one (as opposed to the 45 employees he had in the seventies.) When recording, the studio sent everyone home except a skeleton staff of two. And the recording label didn't insist on having a suit around — a deal "not normal for any star," pointed out Bowie's producer, Tony Visconti. In fact, Sony Music's president only heard of the album's existence a month ago, when he was invited to the studio to listen to several tracks.

The only people who were in on the album were Bowie (who apparently found all the spy-level secrecy hilarious), Visconti, a longtime personal assistant, guitarists Earl Slick and Jerry Leonard, and drummer Sterling Campbell.

But now that the word is out, we can all get thoroughly obsessed with what's to come. According to Visconti, Next Day makes use of medieval English history and a whole lot of other hardcore nonsense:

The album is eclectic, it's got five really blistering rock tracks. The rest is really mid-tempo, mysterious and evocative. He's been obsessed with medieval English history, which, believe it or not, makes great material for a rock song. And contemporary Russian history, which makes a great rock song. The subject matter he chose to write about is amazing. "The Next Day" is a song about a tyrant, let me leave it at that. One thing the album's got is a lot of substance. You're going to have to listen to it many times, because the lyrical content's going to take a long time to absorb.

And that's just the 17 tracks that made it onto the album. Bowie and Co. reportedly recorded 29, and many aren't done yet. "I know he wants to keep recording," Visconti told The Guardian. "I'm not sure when, but I think he'll be back in the studio later this year." We hope he's right.

Read more posts by Andre Tartar

Filed Under: david bowie ,music ,the next day ,new albums ,triumphant comebacks

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This event will be streamed live online through LPR’s Concert Window channel, beginning at 7:30pm.

Robert Cornelius looks like a model, better than that!

Coder and information activist Aaron Swartz took his life on Friday, and in the wake of his death the outpouring of grief from the tech community is palpable. While Swartz wrote publicly about depression, many have speculated that his legal troubles compounded the sense of hopelessness that drove him to take his own life. On Saturday afternoon, Swartz's family and his partner released a statement corroborating that idea:

Aaron’s death is not simply a personal tragedy. It is the product of a criminal justice system rife with intimidation and prosecutorial overreach. Decisions made by officials in the Massachusetts US Attorney’s office and at MIT contributed to his death. The US Attorney’s office pursued an exceptionally harsh array of charges, carrying potentially over 30 years in prison, to punish an alleged crime that had no victims. Meanwhile, unlike JSTOR, MIT refused to stand up for Aaron and its own community’s most cherished principles.

Today, we grieve for the extraordinary and irreplaceable man that we have lost.

The family said that Aaron's funeral will be held in Highland Park, IL, on Tuesday January 15.

Alex Stamos, the CTO of Artemis Internet and an expert witness who was working with Swartz's attorneys to testify in the the April US vs. Swartz trial, also wrote a long post detailing what he knew of the case. The Feds accused Swartz of logging on to MIT's network illegally and using that access “to download a major portion of JSTOR's archive onto his computers.” The Department of Justice officially accused him of wire fraud, computer fraud, and recklessly damaging a protected computer, among other charges.

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(Anthropologie)

Here’s the thing, Anthropologie: If we’re going to shell out big bucks, say, $398 on an overpriced candlestick, we want it racism-free. The company recently had a bit of mud on its face for selling “one of a kind” candlesticks, one of which happened to feature not one, but two racially insensitive figurines.

Anthropologie was selling the Trinket & Treasure Candlestick for almost $400 with a picture that showed a candlestick with a bunch of figurines stacked on top of each other. Let’s see, there’s JFK, and a picture of an Alaska house and… a Mammy figurine? Followed by a stereotypical Asian. Oof.

That item is now being listed as no longer available online after the media got its teeth into Anthroplogie last night, and the company’s public relations director issued an explanation to Buzzfeed, saying:

“An independent artisan makes these one-of-a-kind candlesticks from vintage ceramics. Unfortunately two that we received included extremely inappropriate figurines, and we have removed them from our website.” She adds: “We sincerely regret the offense we have caused.”

It received not one but two? We can only imagine what the other one featured. Here’s a question — yes, there may have only been two that had the offensive figurines, but then to go ahead and use a photo of one to illustrate the product in your catalogue? Didn’t anyone stop and think, “Hey, that’s a really, awful, terrible idea”?

Perhaps we shouldn’t so surprised. After all, the brand is owned by Urban Outfitters, basically the king of controversial clothing — from maybe sorta kinda promoting underage drinking to trying to go for that Holocaust look. Sounds like someone could use some sensitivity training. Or like, a seminar called “Common Sense: How To Use It!”

Did Anthropologie Pull A Racist Candlestick From Its Website? [Buzzfeed]

In the past 25 years, Naxos Records has gone from an oddball industry joke to a leading label and innovative distributor of classical music.

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Fuck your Buddha statuette.

Follow @drewtoothpaste on Twitter or join the TFD Facebook Page.

(NEW!) Drew's blog is The Worst Things For Sale.

In an address delivered on 10  January 1932 William Cardinal O’Connell described crooners as “whiners and bleaters defiling the air.”

“No true American would practice this base art,” he continued. “I like to use my radio, when weary. But I cannot turn the dials without getting these whiners, crying vapid words to impossible tunes.”

“If you will listen closely when you are unfortunate enough to get one of these you will discern the basest appeal to sex emotions in the young. They are not true love songs—they profane the name. They are ribald and revolting to true men.”

This according to “Cardinal denounces crooners as whiners defiling the air” (New York times 11 January 1932, p. 21), which is reprinted in Music, sound, and technology in America: A documentary history of early phonograph, cinema, and radio (Durham: Duke University Press, 2012) pp. 319–20.

Below, Rudy Valée defiles the air in Florenz Ziegfeld’s Glorifying the American girl).

Dalek Doctor Who Beanie 

Are you looking to add a fashion victory to your wardrobe? You need the Dalek Doctor Who Beanie from the NeatoShop. This adorable hat looks like your favorite extraterrestrial race of cyborgs. It is a wonderful way to protect your head from being contaminated by the cold.

Be sure to check out the NeatoShop for more fantastic Doctor Who items. 

Link

Perhaps inspired by Cathryn Lavery's grand poster of Batman logos, Maurice Mitchell created his own superhero infographic, tracing the 75-year history of the Superman shield. He admits that the chart isn't completely comprehensive, but focuses on the major logo designs. It looks like this one isn't available as a poster, at least not yet. More »

The Minnesotasan says:

The law (or convention?) in the United States mandates that when images of postage stamps are printed, a line is drawn through the denomination. I believe it's also required that the images be produced at a size larger or smaller than the actual stamp. These alterations were originally created to prevent people from cutting out stamp images and using them for postage. They would seem to be hopelessly outdated now that stamps are phosphor coated, and the modifications to the images are virtually useless in the face of modern image-editing software. Still, it continues to be done, as in this image from the Virtual Stamp Club.

Freedom. Liberty. Equality. Justice. (Forever?)

Residents on the Upper East Side are fighting the DOT's plans to install more audible crosswalk signals that assist the visually impaired because their noise shatters the serenity of the softly ruffling pages of magazines in rhinoplasty clinic waiting rooms. "How much noise pollution do we need?" Peter Renehan asks DNAinfo. "I've never once seen a blind person cross the street by themselves. These people are assisted because we are a neighborhood, we don't need more noise to assist people to cross the street." [ more › ]

At this years ITP (Interactive Telecommunications Program) show at NYU, co-creator of the experimental video game The Buddhist, Bona Kim, said she wanted make people aware of their ”goal seeking behavior.”

At first glance, The Buddhist certainly looks like a game. You play it on a classic arcade cabinet with a joystick and several buttons. But judging by this video, most people at the show who tried The Buddhist seemed to be confused about what they were “supposed to do.”

While some would find it difficult to classify The Buddhist as an actual video game — especially by today’s standards, in which Hollywood-style linear narrative is becoming more prevalent — not having an immediately obvious goal is something that we have begun to see more of in a few recent releases. Journey, for example, does not have a traditional story. We don’t know much about the protagonist, and we have to piece everything together ourselves. In another PlayStation Network exclusive, The Unfinished Swan, the first stage is a completely white screen devoid of color or any text to guide the player.

The Buddhist succeeds in introducing elementary Buddhist concepts by making players aware that most of us are just too goal driven to be truly happy. Sakyamuni Buddha taught that we should not attach ourselves to the past or be anxious about the future but be fully present in this moment. Players with no knowledge of Buddhist teachings would likely keep tapping buttons and trying to move the monk avatar. As seen in the video, these attempts end in a “game over, try again” message.

The first time I played both Journey and The Unfinished Swan, I was overcome not by an urge to figure out what I was supposed to do but instead with a feeling of wonder. I took my time and explored; I enjoyed the music and the scenery; I figured out the controls and had a blast doing it.

Experiments like The Buddhist and lauded indie titles like Journey and The Unfinished Swan show that interactive media can also be tools for teaching players about their expectations and preconceived notions. Several reviewers have compared Journey to a religious experience, and if that has set any kind of precedent, I think we can expect to see more games that make players question their reactions, expectations, and values.

Filed under: Games